Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-12-25

row are letters painted blue on the white
background that the wall afforded, with
red stars between them the second row
Of letters is made to appear as white on
o blue background, aud the stars are yell
low, while the bottom row Is a repetition
of tho upper.
Ot the captivity Of the Duke Of Milan
very little is known. For awhile he had
a prison companion named FRANCOIS dc
Pohtremol0, 70 whom he was greatly st
tached, and IL grieyed him very much
when taken away from lis cachot to
another cell In the castle, where he was
much more comfortable, but alone. Dead,
finally, he was buried with royal h0nofs,
but where no one can tell. for no stone
can be found 70 mark his resting place,
and the only monuments in France or in
Italy that perpeiuate his memory are
curious ffescoes which / have so imper-
fectly described.
Down into the very bowels OF the
earth, so 1t seemed, we descended from
Ludovic's room TO one which knows no
daylight at all 1t is called the cGchOt
&c POubiiCUcs because OF an opening in
It's floor, which gives access TO under
ground passages. II is unintereSting,
however, and so we hurried on; that is
TO say, we went through an old wooden
door strongly cross-b barred with iron and
with an old-fashioned heavy wrought
iron lock on il, the key 10 which is as
big as a New York policemens club, to
another stairway OF stOue, down which
we crept our way, holding lighted tai
low ina tin pan before us as we proceeded
until we came to the OUbhettcS of the
Loches donjOn. Between You and me,
though, there ore no such things as
! oltbiictteS at LochCs, or anywhere else in
France that / have been, for that mat
ter. Genuine OUbiicficS were holes
down which prisoners were dropped into
beds of quicklime, TO be heard from
never again, Notwithstanding legends
and the vivid imaginations of modern
writers, they always were rare thing
in this country, and very few are now
known to have ever actually existed.
The dreadful Bastille had none. and
archROlOgists have come to the cOnclu-
sion that most of those now holes pointed
ont as OuJHettcs were nothing more
than cesspOols. Still / am not going to
deny that the guardian of Loches Castle
pointed out four or five holes that he
called ouJHeHcs, and may as well tell
you about them. Entrance to them Is
by iair-sized hall that was followed out
in the rock and though no ray OF day
light ever peeped into the place the
walls showed some strange inscriptions.
"Help God aud men is what one pris-
oner has carved on the stone to this
touching appeal is added a name that |
could not make out, and the date 14l7.
p This shows that that wall was so traced
as early as the commencement of the tif-
teenth century; and there is an
other carving. Gle noble Due
dc Ghulhers, 145l," which is
quite as interesting. There are
subterranean passages leading from these
to the lowest dungeons, aud it IS sup
posed they led to the network of aban-
doned quarries that uuderlie the whole
bluff or plateau in this part of Touraine.
In the time of Louis XIII. one OF the
Governors Of Loches undertook a syste-
matte exploration of these remarkable
passages. He found several closed by
iron doors which he forced open finally
long gallery led him into a small cell
cut ia the rock, where lie found the body
of a tall man seated on large stone, his
head resting on his hands; but IT crum-
bled away into dust the moment the air
touched It, as did also n little box lying
at the mans foot
We mounted to tcyTn frmd again,
and the intelligent guardian conducted
me to the newer part Of the castle.
During the fourteenth century build
ing wns erected alongside the castle that
is now occupied by the concierge, and
it was this point that was selected at
the commencement of the fifteenth cen
tury for the site of new donjon, to be
built according to the rules of military
art, and which should he armed with
cannon. The engineers began by
building on the extreme verge Of the
rock q heavy tower to command the en-
tire country, and from which an enilade
fire could bc kept up on the whole line of
the western rampants. On the north this
new donion absorbed into its mass
the walls constructed in the eleventh
century. The principal of these out
works was round tower, built on the
edge of a rock Half Of 1t tumbled
down in 1914, and now it is mere ruin.
Although a royal abode, this tower must
have been a very gloomy place. We en-
tered this old structure, and the very
first room / stepped into was the torture
chamber. The authorities of those days
called it questioning the accused, and
many are the men who were tortured IN
If. 1t still contains a bar of iron to which
are fastened rings for the feet
Of the victim, who are stretched
ont on the stone floor with his
arms in letters attached to chains
still in the walls These "bracelcts u
were called fioHes On rUi, because they
were night and day the inseparable com
panion Of The prisoner Beneath this
terrible chamber is a small hall where
Cardinal la Balue was confined. He was
4 the son of a tailor at Rugers, but he was
shrewd and learned, and rose to be Car
dinal and Minister to the King. He wat
usefulto Louis XI., and on one occasion
the latter referred TO him as "a good
devil of a bishop whose future Cannot he
guess i, ami who is ilet now occupied
/ in the royal service. But Louis bad q
yjndict.ye character, and Dever forgaye q
man against whom his susp.clons were
aroused. Cardinal la Balue did some
thing and the King ordered him to be
tried for treason. 1t al ended in his
coming 10 Locbes TO be confined in one
of the cages invented by bis friend, the
Bishop OF Nerdon. end who, in bis turn,
also suffered punishment in one Of them.
In the end though, the Cardinal wat
liberated recovered the Kings conf
denee, and died at Rome in the yea
1871 covered with honors and sauctity
/ measured his cell or cage and found Il
was pecisely six feet in length, breadth,
aud height.
Among other prisoners kept in the
douion OF Loches were Pierre dc Ma
varre, Count dc st. Waller, and Oudard
du Biez. The Count dc st. WALLER vat
found guilty Of high treason and con-
demned to death, but was plrdoncd on
the scafiold, the price paid for his life
being the honor OF his daughter, who
became the Kings mistress, and is
i